1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of portable terminals and more particularly, to a menu executing method and apparatus in a portable terminal, by which a user's gesture is sensed to automatically display a menu related to a particular service function.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the technology development of mobile devices, mobile communication terminals have been equipped with various multimedia functions as well as simple phone call functions, and can also access the Internet. In particular, in devices having Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) functions, such as smart phones, various applications can be executed. Such devices provide not only cellular phone functions, but also various application services such as MP3, camera, wireless Internet, e-mail, and message services.
With the increase in the number of application services, a variety of menus for executing corresponding applications have been created. As a number of applications are integrated in a single terminal, additional service functions corresponding to the integrated applications also increases and, thus, several stages are required to use an additional service function provided by each application.
In other words, as the additional service functions increase, a plurality of execution commands form a particular menu group, and each menu group includes a plurality of execution commands or sub-menus. To execute a desired particular menu, a user has to select a predetermined menu group and then execute a command included in the selected menu group.
The user also selects a sub-menu included in the selected menu group, selects a predetermined command among a plurality of execution commands included in the selected sub-menu, and executes the selected command.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating in brief an operation performed to execute a menu related to a particular service function (for example, a Short Messaging Service (SMS) text message service) in a general portable terminal. As shown in FIG. 1, to delete text messages from some or all subscribers or transmit a text message to one or more subscribers displayed (e.g., a list of subscribers that exchange SMS text messages with the user, such as David, Michael, Jenifer . . . ), the user, when using an SMS text message service function, must go to a received message box to search for a message to be transmitted. After the message is found, the user has to press, or touch, a menu button and if a menu list is displayed, the user selects a “send” button by using a “move” button and performs transmission by pressing or touching the selected “send” button. In this way, the user has to undergo several stages (or levels of manipulation) to execute a desired menu due to frequency movement between screens.